Shiv Sagar isn't calling for a recast. He's just saying, out loud, what a chunk of the internet has been muttering since Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana casting first leaked.

The producer-director, grandson of Ramanand Sagar, told ANI he has no problem with the rest of the film's ensemble. He name-checked Yash and Sai Pallavi specifically, saying both are "looking very good" in their parts. His issue is with the top of the call sheet.

"Personally, I cannot accept Ranbir Kapoor as Ram after Animal," he said. His reasoning isn't about Ranbir's range. It's about memory. Animal, for all its box office noise, gave audiences a Ranbir who was violent, morally slippery, hard to root for in the conventional sense. Shiv Sagar's argument is that Ram doesn't get to carry that kind of residue.

"When I look at Ram ji, I feel that a fresh face should have been taken," he said, pointing out that television serials on the epic have traditionally leaned on newcomers precisely so the character arrives without any history attached. "He has a lot of baggage. That's why we usually take a new face in our serials, so they don't have any baggage or history."

He was careful to draw a line between the actor and the decision. "We have seen Ranbir in different roles, he is a very good actor. Personally, I don't have anything against him," he clarified, before adding the part that's likely to sting the production more than any of it. He suggested the casting may have been driven by marketability rather than fit for the role. "I think they must have taken him for the project because they want a marketing push, and maybe if they didn't take Ranbir, the film wouldn't have been marketed so well," he said, though he stopped short of stating this as fact.

There's a bigger point buried in his comments, and it's less about Ranbir specifically. Shiv Sagar draws a distinction between how the West and how India treat the Ramayana. "Even in India, it is called mythology, but it is our history. People worship them every day," he said, arguing that's precisely why casting Ram is a more sensitive call than casting most other leading roles, mythological or otherwise. He also flagged the costumes in "some parts" as something that "could have been better," without going into specifics.

He didn't leave it as a closed argument, though. "In reality, the public is the king, and whatever the public says will be the final verdict," he said, handing the final word to whoever actually buys a ticket.

Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana, with Ranbir Kapoor as Ram, Sai Pallavi as Sita and Yash reportedly playing Ravana, is still headed for the big screen. No release date has been confirmed alongside this round of casting commentary, which means the argument over whether Ranbir clears the bar Shiv Sagar has set will keep running well before anyone sees a frame of the finished film.